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Business Students win 2012 Midwest ALPFA Award

7/23/2012

2012 ALPFA Executive Board

The local UIUC chapter of the Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting won the national 2012 ALPFA Midwest Student Chapter of the Year Award. ALPFA is the premier Latino professional organization in finance, accounting and related professions. The ALPFA Awards recognize members who have helped promote the mission of the organization: “To create opportunities, add value, and build relationships for our members, community and business partners while expanding Latino leadership in the global workforce.”

George Martinez, president of the UIUC campus chapter said his chapter plans to attend the national convention in August, held in Las Vegas at Caesars Palace, to officially accept the award. “This award signifies our continued striving to exemplify the mission and vision of ALPFA. We won this award back in 2010 and we are proud to reclaim the award again this year.”

While there, five members will compete in the ALPFA-KPMG National Case competition against other top schools. The competition brings together accounting students from over 30 schools to solve complex accounting cases and present their findings to KPMG and ALPFA accounting professionals. The experience shows students the possibilities of what it may be like to work at a Big Four firm.

Martinez says his chapter hopes to increase membership in the coming year in order to create more opportunities for members, like internships, full-time job offers, and mentoring. “To many of our current members, ALPFA becomes your family away from home. It is quite common in our Latino culture for parents to not want their children to attend schools like UIUC because it is in our culture to always be together with our families. However, because of this common background, we can help support each other as we aspire to graduate from Illinois and launch our business careers.”